Wanda Salvatto, mother of legendary rapper Mac Dre, who was killed in 2004, holds a framed copy of Murder Dog Magazine with her son Andre Hicks, known as Mac Dre, on the cover on Wednesday April 25, 2012 in Vallejo, Calif. Salvatto owns Thizz Entertainment and is upset that the company was named in a big drug bust recently. Salvatto is at home in an office where posters of her son adorn the walls. (Susan Tripp Pollard/Staff)

Published By Times Herald

It's been eight years since her rapper son Mac Dre was shot to death leaving a Kansas City club, and Wanda Salvatto said Wednesday she is still searching for peace.

The posthumous popularity of Mac Dre - born Andre Hicks - has skyrocketed since he was slain Nov. 1, 2004. This has been both a blessing and curse for his mother, who fans affectionately call "Mac Wanda." The Vallejo resident has spent the past eight years trying to legitimize his career and his legacy.

She said she was shocked Wednesday when relatives and friends began calling her saying that newspapers and television were reporting that 25 people associated with Thizz Entertainment arrested last week had been charged with multiple counts of drug trafficking.

Since his death, Salvatto became owner and CEO of Thizz Entertainment, registering her corporation with the state and managing Mac Dre's music catalog, which includes 25 albums and countless cameos on other artists' tracks. The rappers caught up in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's four-year investigation were part of an offshoot label, Thizz Nation, she said.

"Thizz Entertainment is actually me. There are no artists signed to the label," said Salvatto, who was not charged, or even mentioned, by federal authorities in their investigation.

"I worked very hard to clean up and maintain a legitimate label and business for my son. I don't want to confuse what we do with our fans."

City Hall Records, which has distributed independent recordings since 1973 in San Rafael, is an investor in Thizz Entertainment.

"It's a real business. It's no gangster thing," Walter Zelnick, vice president of purchasing, said of Thizz Entertainment. City Hall also distributes on behalf of Thizz Nation. Zelnick said Thizz Nation is run by Simon Curtis "Kilo Kurt" Nelson, a former partner of Mac Dre, and not by Michael Lott, who federal authorities allege assisted in running the record label along with a large drug distribution network.

A DEA spokeswoman said the agency stands by the sworn court documents it produced that led to U.S. Attorney charges implicating Thizz Entertainment. The documents also detail Mac Dre's criminal history, his efforts to start the label and his death.

"He's not dealing drugs from his grave. They need to let him rest, regardless of what happened when he's a teenager," his mother said.

"Mac Dre's been dead for eight years, but he has a mother left, nieces left, a daughter," she said. "We relive the death all over again."

She acknowledged the term "thizz" is associated with the drug Ecstasy, but that her label has moved beyond that.

"It may have had roots in drugs, but there are no drugs involved anymore. I have nothing to do with drugs," Salvatto said. "When he died he was on the right track. He was living a legitimate life."

The timing of the federal busts was unfortunate as well, Salvatto said, because she had plans for rereleasing portions of her son's catalog and "tons of unpublished stuff."

"At some point, I wanted to do more with the catalog, but I was waiting for the right time," she said. "I wanted to do it around now, but now this happened."

Her son, born in Oakland and raised in Vallejo, still has legions of fans, particularly in the Bay Area.

"Generations of people watched him grow up with his rap music and his life's trials and tribulations," she said. "Young kids can relate to that because they go through that, too."

Sometimes fans were too passionate. In 2006, two years after Mac Dre's death, his 50-pound granite tombstone was stolen from an Oakland cemetery, likely by a rabid fan, the family said.

Many in the rap game attach themselves to the term "thizz" to make a name for themselves and ride Mac Dre's coattails, said Black Dog Bone, editor of Vallejo-based Murder Dog magazine, which chronicles the rap scene.

"They want to get on the bandwagon," said Bone, who said he does not know any of the artists charged in the drug probe. "I get calls from people from the South saying they're with 'thizz.' "

"Mac Dre, after he died, he became a legend. He was doing stuff that no one else was doing. He was a genius S He's probably the biggest influence in music in the Bay Area."

Contact Matthias Gafni at 925-952-5026. Follow him at Twitter.com/mgafni.